WORDS AND IMAGES #6 SKY

THE VAULT OF HEAVEN

 

Picture was taken last year, along California Highway 99, north of Stockton.

For more information about Rabindranath Tagore, links follow:

More Poems:  http://www.iit.edu/~shartan/tagore/

Short biography:  http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1913/tagore-bio.html

 

  

US CITIES MAY BE BULLDOZED

Actually this makes some sense to me.  I have seen areas in cities that were basically abandoned, buildings falling apart, decay, trash, ghost towns.  And that was thirty years ago working with Bekins Van Lines.  It has to be worse now.  If it is done right, it seems jobs could be created, make it green, where bricks, construction stone, wood, doors, etc etc are salvaged.  People could learn the trades and work skills, demolition, landscaping, even some construction by taking widows and doors, etc. out, and using those to repair houses in disrepair in other parts of the city.   If it is thought out, a lot could be done to help a lot of people.--JohnOh

US CITIES MAY HAVE TO BE BULLDOZED IN ORDER TO SURVIVE

by Tom Leonard (reporting from Flint, Michigan), The TELEGRAPH, Telegraph.co.uk

Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic "shrink to survive" proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline.

The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature. Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area.

The radical experiment is the brainchild of Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, which includes Flint. Having outlined his strategy to Barack Obama during the election campaign, Mr Kildee has now been approached by the US government and a group of charities who want him to apply what he has learnt to the rest of the country.

Mr Kildee said he will concentrate on 50 cities, identified in a recent study by the Brookings Institution, an influential Washington think-tank, as potentially needing to shrink substantially to cope with their declining fortunes Most are former industrial cities in the "rust belt" of America's Mid-West and North East. They include Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Memphis.

In Detroit, shattered by the woes of the US car industry, there are already plans to split it into a collection of small urban centres separated from each other by countryside.  "The real question is not whether these cities shrink – we're all shrinking – but whether we let it happen in a destructive or sustainable way," said Mr Kildee. "Decline is a fact of life in Flint. Resisting it is like resisting gravity."

Karina Pallagst, director of the Shrinking Cities in a Global Perspective programme at the University of California, Berkeley, said there was "both a cultural and political taboo" about admitting decline in America. "Places like Flint have hit rock bottom. They're at the point where it's better to start knocking a lot of buildings down," she said.

Flint, sixty miles north of Detroit, was the original home of General Motors. The car giant once employed 79,000 local people but that figure has shrunk to around 8,000.  Unemployment is now approaching 20 per cent and the total population has almost halved to 110,000

The exodus – particularly of young people – coupled with the consequent collapse in property prices, has left street after street in sections of the city almost entirely abandoned.

In the city centre, the once grand Durant Hotel – named after William Durant, GM's founder – is a symbol of the city's decline, said Mr Kildee. The large building has been empty since 1973, roughly when Flint's decline began. Regarded as a model city in the motor industry's boom years, Flint may once again be emulated, though for very different reasons.

But Mr Kildee, who has lived there nearly all his life, said he had first to overcome a deeply ingrained American cultural mindset that "big is good" and that cities should sprawl – Flint covers 34 square miles. He said: "The obsession with growth is sadly a very American thing. Across the US, there's an assumption that all development is good, that if communities are growing they are successful. If they're shrinking, they're failing."

But some Flint dustcarts are collecting just one rubbish bag a week, roads are decaying, police are very understaffed and there were simply too few people to pay for services, he said.  If the city didn't downsize it will eventually go bankrupt, he added.

Flint's recovery efforts have been helped by a new state law passed a few years ago which allowed local governments to buy up empty properties very cheaply.  They could then knock them down or sell them on to owners who will occupy them. The city wants to specialise in health and education services, both areas which cannot easily be relocated abroad.

The local authority has restored the city's attractive but formerly deserted centre but has pulled down 1,100 abandoned homes in outlying areas. Mr Kildee estimated another 3,000 needed to be demolished, although the city boundaries will remain the same.

Already, some streets peter out into woods or meadows, no trace remaining of the homes that once stood there. Choosing which areas to knock down will be delicate but many of them were already obvious, he said.

The city is buying up houses in more affluent areas to offer people in neighbourhoods it wants to demolish. Nobody will be forced to move, said Mr Kildee.  "Much of the land will be given back to nature. People will enjoy living near a forest or meadow," he said.

Mr Kildee acknowledged that some fellow Americans considered his solution "defeatist" but he insisted it was "no more defeatist than pruning an overgrown tree so it can bear fruit again".

 

  

PICTURE PERFECT JUNE 12th, 2009 -----> LIGHT

The Theme that Cherie has given us this week is:

LIGHT

To learn more about and join in the Picture Perfect weekly challenge, please follow the link

=======>    http://fotofriday.multiply.com/

 

THE LIGHT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TUNNEL

Cave,  Shasta-Trinity National Forest, near Medicine Lake

I immediately thought of this one, it was taken, wow, it is five years now???!!!  I have no concept of time anymore.  This was taken with a Sony Mavica. 

 I   filled in on the right of the cave mouth with a cloning tool, to get the feeling of a small entrance.  And used the one differently color rock  near the center bottom of the entrance to make two other "figures", hopefully for a bit of a spooky feeling. 

IN THE HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING -- THE PEER GYNT SUITE by  Edward Greig  

 

  

CONTRACT WITH AMERICA

We need another Contract With America. We need to nail our own 95 Theses to the doors of Congress.  I do not care if it is from a Democrat, or a Republican, or a third party, or some lone voice crying in the wilderness, as long as they mean it and will fight for it, they will have my vote.  I would even like to see a viable third party come out of all the turmoil, perhaps the Blue Dogs could join with some Fiscally responsible Republicans, that would be a great start.

1)  On Pay Raises: Congress will have no more automatic pay-raises, if they want one they will have a recorded vote on the matter, and if it passes the pay raise will not take effect for individual congress-persons until their next election.

2) On Retirement: Congress's golden retirement is no more, you will start collecting your retirement at the same time as the general public can start collecting Social Security.  And any cost of living adjustments will be at the same percentage as social security.

3)  On Retirement: Why are we still paying for congressmen who have been found guilty, or forced to leave, or  have resigned so they will not be charged or forced to leave.  If you are found guilty of crimes, forced to leave for ethical problems, or resigned to escape charges or ethics problems you WILL NOT collect any retirement.

4) On Retirement: Congress's retirement will be means tested.  There is an obscene percentage of millionaires in both houses.  If you are wealthy enough, and your spouses worth is counted in the equation, you will not retirement.  Consider it your public service, we will give you a gold plated watch and our thanks. 

5) On Retirement: Congress will have to serve a full twenty years in office, can be a combination of Representative and Senate, before they can collect retirement.

6)  On Fact Finding Trips, Congress and your staff will be able to go, no family members allowed, no wives, no children, no pets, no domestic partners period!!  If your secretary cannot use a computer she does not get to go either.

7)  On Pork Barrel Spending:  All spending bills will have to name the author and any sponsors.

8) On Pork Barrel Spending:  All spending bills will be added in only with like bills,or will have to stand on their own merits.   No 20 million dollars for spinach growers hidden in a military procurement bill Rep. Farr!!  (He is my representative, and he loves earmarks and pork barrel). 

9) On Ear Mark Spending:  See Numbers 7 and 8

10)On Ethics:  Any Congressman who has serious and substantiated ethic and or criminal charges pending, will have to step down from his or her committee chairmanship until said charges are investigated.  We want no more Rep. Rangles, Conyers, or Sen. Dodds who retain chairmanships when charges have been leveled.

11) On Office Decorating:  Congress shall no longer buy new furniture, or remodel an office that has recently been remodeled.  You can visit a government warehouse and pick out some furniture.

12)  On Accessibility: Congress will have at least one "open" townhall meeting during your trips home.  If you have time to campaign, you have time for a townhall meeting.  If a public access channel is available, the townhall meeting shall be broadcast.

13)  On The Borders:  Congress will secure the borders.

14) On Illegal Aliens: Congress shall make a work visa program. A program that will be streamlined for issue, and trackable.  People who wish to work here should be able to without having to wait till hell freezes over. When the visa is up, time to reapply or time to go home, period.  Of the illegals here now,  if they are working, they will have a grace time to come in for a work visa, and continue to be able to work here . After that grace time is up, those  illegal aliens whop have chosen to not apply for the work visa will be deported to country of origin, and the secure borders mentioned in Number 13 will stop the revolving door of re-entry.

15)  On Welfare: Congress shall enact a drug testing program for welfare recipients.  If workers are tested for their jobs and pay, then so can welfare recipients.  There will be Drug Rehabilitation available if needed, drugs are a disease in this land.  Welfare recipients will attend Vocational Schools if they are physically and mentally able.

16)On Fraud:  Congress will hire more investigators for the Billions congress tells us there is in fraud in the Medicare and Social Security Disability Insurance.  They be worth their pay if they do the job.  Perhaps put them on a percentage basis, a percentage of the money they find in fraud and return to the public coffers. 

17) On Fraud:  Congress shall mandate, that if a Doctor or lawyer is found guilty of fraud in Medicare or SSDI, he/she has the choice of prison time, or working in a clinic or as a public defender pro bono for a specified period of time.

Please add your ideas in the comments.  We must quit acting locally for local elections.  An example, my Rep. has his seat locked in, gerrymandering is part of it, he brings home the pork is another.  Next year, as far as I can tell, he will be un-opposed for re-election; therefore my donation or my help in this election is void, but there may be one across the country that is a close race, and I happen to believe in what one stands for.  My money should go there, if I cannot elect someone locally, I might as well try and get someone elected who stands I could support.

Thanks for taking the time to read through this.  This is what you get when I cannot sleep, and my mind is whirring around.  Guess I listened to too much news last night.  Going to put some soft classical on and try to find the elusive sleep.

God bless us one and all.

STAR TREK THE YOUNGER

Finally saw some of the new Star Trek movie*,  I did not care for the new Spock character.  And they made Kirk and Spock look so much alike,  Some publicity stills follow to prove my point. . .

 

(*Okay Okay, I really haven't seen the actual movie yet, I needed some sort of lead-in for the cartoons. . .)